We’re a small Dutch game developer that has existed for over ten years and has recently made the transition to being totally independent. Our games overview will give you a good idea of the types of games we’ve created.

What’s a Toki Tori?Toki Tori was the first game ever released by Two Tribes in 2001 for Game Boy Color. It is a puzzle/platform game that was remade into a WiiWare launch title in 2008 and also appeared on PC/Mac/Playstation3/iPhone/iPad/Android. Toki Tori has an 80 Metacritic score.

Why Now Toki Tori 2?

We are making Toki Tori 2 now, ten years after the original, because we can do this with the resources we’ve got at our disposal. We’ve had several false starts in recent years, but now we feel confident we can make it to the end with this design.

What makes Toki Tori 2 Unique?

We are creating a platform / puzzle game with a living, breathing game world where the creatures that inhabit it act as the tools for the player to solve the puzzles. The game is designed to reward player curiosity, and does not have any artificial gameplay limitations such as locked doors or invisible walls. Players are able to make their way through the game based on the level of knowledge they have of the game world. Need more info on this? Feel free to read the blogpost concerning the ‘knowledge unlocks’.

Which Platforms Will It Support?

Toki Tori 2 is scheduled for release worldwide on Wii U Q1 2013. We’ll be focusing on Steam (PC/Mac) after that. Other platforms are being considered but not confirmed at this point.How About That Community Of Yours?

We asked Toki Tori fans to enlist when we announced Toki Tori 2 back in October 2011, to look at what goes into making a game and to help us make the game better. People responded en masse and we’ve been providing them with Steam builds and updates on a regular basis. Feel free to apply for a code as well if you want to receive updated Toki Tori 2 builds.

Whenever I’m playing games that use the unlocking mechanism popularized by the Zelda series, I feel conflicted. I like being challenged in games, so when I walk around and see something outside my reach, I feel motivated to figure out how to get there.

The games using this mechanic usually end up giving you an item or upgrade a while later, allowing you to go back and reach it. My initial excitement disappears and I end up making mental notes about where I need to go whenever the game decides it is time to give me a new item. At this point I realize I’m still on a pre-determined route set out by the game’s designers.

In Toki Tori 2, players will have a similar initial experience, where they’ll follow the main path but get teased by an alternate route or a seemingly impossible to reach collectible. We expect the player’s first reaction is to move on, expecting they’ll be handed a tool to reach it at a later time.

But as they continue they’ll start to notice no tools are being handed out. Instead, we teach the player more about the creature that was standing next to the seemingly impossible to reach collectible. It turns out it was possible all along, and he could have figured it out himself by experimenting a bit more with the creature.

We call this the ‘knowledge unlock’. Absolutely everything we put into the game can be accessed straight away with just Toki Tori’s stomp and whistle moves and some brainpower from the player’s part. Toki Tori will still need to move from level to level through the game, but the route and difficulty will completely depend on the knowledge gathered by the player. The more curious the player becomes, the more the game will reward him for it.

By introducing them to the idea that everything is always possible in Toki Tori 2, we hope players will start asking themselves the more difficult questions. Questions that can always be answered by trying it out inside the game’s levels.

“Could I reach that collectible by capturing the Bubblefrog inside his own bubble?”

“What if I block the path to the bird’s nest? Will it still want to pick me up?”

Aside from being a great tool to reward player curiosity, knowledge unlocks can bring us a few great side-effects too. Second play-throughs won’t drag on at the beginning, because players don’t have to wait for the game world to open up, and curious players can be presented with the more difficult puzzles inside the same levels as more casual players.

When we announced the Wii U version of Toki Tori 2, we also revealed the Tokidex. Collin then described it like this:

The Tokidex feature allows you to scan the area around Toki Tori for creatures and objects by using the Wii U Gamepad as a virtual camera with a viewfinder. Any creatures photographed will be added to the Tokidex. It’s quite fun to do, especially with creatures that move quite a bit!

Guess what? All of this is still true. The Tokidex Camera is a fun little feature, reminiscent of golden oldies like Pokémon Snap. There are almost 40 pictures to shoot and it’s a bit of a puzzle to figure out which objects are ‘snappable’. Finding everything unlocks a nifty easter egg*.

*Not an actual egg.

Aside from these features we also use the touch screen in smaller ways, such as placing pins on the world map or navigating the pause menu quickly.